Avoiding the ‘merit trap’

About (English version):

Male Champions of Change and Chief Executive Women say it’s time to face up to the gender ‘merit trap’.When we use merit as shorthand for a package of admirable qualities that we innately recognise, we devalue ‘merit’. Many studies confirm that we are drawn to those who think, look and act like us. This is a problem for women working in male dominated environments where there are deeply held beliefs and norms about who is suitable for leadership. Research has found that gender bias persists in many organisations, and even more so in self-labelled ‘meritocracies’:

One study found that the more organisations promoted themselves as meritocracies, the more their managers showed greater bias towards men over equally qualified women. Managers in these organisations tend to believe they are objective and don’t examine their biases, resulting in a paradox of meritocracy.

Senior men in Australian business were twice as likely to rank other men over women as effective problem solvers, despite believing that women were as capable as men in delivering outcomes.

A recent study of 200 performance reviews in a US high tech company found women were more than three times more likely to receive feedback about having a negative (aggressive) communication style than men, with women often criticised for behaviour that may be considered leadership credential if shown by a man.

COMMON BIASES THAT IMPACT DECISION MAKING

Affinity bias is a tendency to favour people who are like us, resulting in homogenous teams and group think

GenPORT is funded by the European Union FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2012-1 programm.Grant agreement nº 321485. Information given on this site reflects only the author's views. The European Community is not liable for any use that might be made of the information contained therein.